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“There will be differences, but we have to be honest – we changed the style of our game sometimes last season as well.

“When we played Newcastle away, we played slightly different to other games so there will be some games in the Premier League as well where we have to slightly change our style, but the idea and our identity will always be the same even in the Premier League.

“It makes totally no sense now, only because you are at the highest level, to change what made you strong in the past.

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“I think the only comparable games we had last season were against Manchester City in the [FA] cup and we stuck to our idea and identity against Man City and we played well – a draw at home and we got smashed 5-1 away.

“This happens – it’s the Premier League.

“We are aware that this can happen next season as well, but we still will stick to identity – I am totally sure.”

Town will have to play their game without midfield stalwart of last season Jonathan Hogg however, who is likely to be sidelined for a couple of weeks as he works his way back from an ankle injury sustained in the pre-season friendly against Udinese.

Martin Cranie (hip), Nahki Wells (ankle) and Jon Gorenc Stankovic (knee) are all also on the physio’s table this week, but all nine summer signings - along with the rest of the squad - will be fit and ready to go after a tough pre-season schedule.

“Of course we are ready – we should be after pre-season,” said Wagner.

“The pre-season was okay – not fantastic because we had some setbacks with injuries – training was okay, games were okay – up and downs, tired legs, tired heads like it should be in the pre-season.

“Now we are getting the freshness back in their legs, but it doesn’t stop after the pre-season – then it starts.

“We will develop and we have to develop over the next weeks and months in terms of individual performances, in terms of the harmony on the grass, in terms of having the right feeling of what to do in the right situation.

“The more experience you have as a group together and it’s not only in the pre-season – it doesn’t stop after the pre-season – the better you will get as a group.

“This is why I think we had a pre-season which was okay, we are ready and we are excited.

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Similar to last season, the head coach was totally focused on this week’s opposition and refused to look ahead to the Newcastle United or Southampton matches in the coming weeks.

And, as usual, the Town boss was confident his players had all the information they would need to give Crystal Palace a tough match at Selhurst Park.

He said: “We are totally aware of them.

“We know they have some strengths, we know as well they changed their manager, they changed their style, their formation.

“The players will get all the information they need – the players will be prepared and then hopefully we will find some spaces where we will be able to hurt them as well.

“Maybe we will be able to show some areas where they have some problems – this is our aim.

“Like always, we have a lot of respect before the game for our opponent, but on the other side we are totally focused on ourselves and we are ambitious enough that we would like to be successful from the start in our first game in the Premier League.”

And the Town fans would be delighted if their side can snatch three points in their first ever Premier League match, with a large section of the support not old enough to have seen Town in the top tier of English football - something that last happened in the 1971/72 season.